After 20 years, Yakov Smirnoff is saying goodbye to Branson

Jul. 26, 2012

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Yakov Smirnoff Talks About His Career: After 20 years, this is Yakov Smirnoff’s last full season in Branson. The comedian plans to spend the next two years touring the United States. He holds a masters in psychology.

You may know Yakov Smirnoff as the Russian comedian who pumps his arms, exclaims “What a country” and laughs like a donkey.

But this funny man is also serious and emotional. He’s an accomplished artist. (His work hung at Ground Zero and received national attention.) He’s an author, a father, a patriot, holds degrees in art and psychology, and above all, he’s an American success story.

And what about that name? It’s not completely real.

When Yakov immigrated to the United States, he landed his first job in a bar and changed his last name from Pokhis to Smirnoff, he said, because “it would be easy for Americans to remember.”

When he was young, laughter was a way to get attention. Then it became a way to get the girl, the nice car, the house. Now, he sees comedy as a gift he wants to share.

“When you’re watching people laugh, it’s a very intimate moment. Laughter is the shortest distance between two people,” Yakov said, speaking after a recent performance.

After 20 years in Branson, this is his last full season to perform at his theater. Yakov will spend the next two years touring the country, focused on using comedy to help couples. He wants to bring “love and laughter” back to marriages.

It’s a change that has been percolating for a while. His time in the Ozarks has been transformational. Yakov referred to himself as a caterpillar who was feeding, taking, before he came to Branson. While here, he moved into a cocoon and grew as a man. And now it’s time to fly.

Life in Russia

Yakov grew up an only child in a one-room apartment with his parents.

He was always funny, he said, but didn’t expect to be a comedian because Russia was heavily censored. Originally, his dream was to sing, but his first performance crushed that idea.

“I sang and people were laughing, and I knew that was not an appropriate response. Then I made jokes and people laughed, and I knew that was the appropriate response,” he said.

One thing was for sure, he didn’t want to work in an office, and he needed a creative outlet, so he studied art. After college, he performed a few comedy skits and people loved him. Soon he would do whatever it took to get in front of an audience. Before he knew it, comedy was paying more than his art.

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He landed a job as a comedian on a Russian cruise ship.

When asked what he missed about his native land, he shook his head.

“I don’t,” he said seriously, paused, and then told a joke. “Oh, there were plenty of parking spaces, and always a policeman around when you need one.”

Coming to America

In 1977, when Yakov was 26, he moved to America with his parents.

“I was clear on what I wanted to do (be a comedian), I just didn’t know I needed to speak English,” he joked.

The family moved to New York City and didn’t have enough money for an apartment deposit. That was the first time he experienced American generosity.

Without the deposit, the landlord rented the apartment to his family because her parents had been immigrants and someone had helped them. That night, she asked other tenants to give anything extra they could spare to help these new immigrants, and many did.

By 1979, he was in Florida working as a short-order cook and still struggling with English. Because Yakov had cruise ship experience, a friend typed up Yakov’s resume and sent it to Royal Caribbean International.

Yakov was hired, then fired after one voyage because of his poor English.

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Four years later, he was hired back on that same ship as the headliner, he said with a smile.

His career took off.

He had seven appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and was asked to perform for President Ronald Reagan. (He’s performed for three presidents.) He met numerous celebrities, had bookings in Las Vegas, got married, had two children and bought a $2.5 million home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

He became an American citizen on July 4, 1986.

Life was good.

And then something unexpected happened.

Welcome to Branson

When the Soviet Union collapsed, David Letterman mentioned Yakov in his Top Ten List.

The talk show host predicted Yakov would soon be out of work.

“I was laughing,” said Yakov. “But then, people started canceling my shows, and I wasn’t laughing anymore. All of a sudden, I was fading away.”

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The comedian said it took a while to figure it out, but he realizes now that there was so much tension between the U.S and Soviet Union during the Cold War and he made people comfortable. He was that funny Russian who put people at ease. They didn’t need him now.

But Branson was different.

In Branson, if you are talented and willing to work hard, the attitude is “Come on, down. We’ll give you a chance,” he said.

He went to see Shoji Tabuchi’s show and thought: “I can do this.”

Only in America can a Japanese and Russian have a theater in the Ozarks, he joked.

Yakov rented space, and only 18 people showed up at his debut performance.

“I thought, ‘Oh, boy. How am I going to pay my mortgage in California?’ But a year later, 1,000 people would come to my show,” he said.

Then 2,000.

To date, he has performed for more than 4 million people in Branson. After renting from several theaters, Yakov eventually bought his own, which seats 1,800.

Branson gave him a home. He raised his children here.

“Branson was a cocoon for me,” he said. “In the cocoon, you are developing. I had no idea that was going to happen.”

The Artist

Many people have no idea that this comedian has a hidden talent. It debuted to the nation on Sept. 11, 2002.

During the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Yakov watched in horror. He remembered at his naturalization ceremony to become an American citizen, standing at the Statue of Liberty and looking out at the skyline.

“That was an American landscape that registered in my mind ... all of a sudden, it’s being destroyed. I’m watching it on TV, he said, taking a serious tone. “I stayed up all night sketching, painting. I thought ‘What cannot be destroyed?’ The American spirit, the heart.”

As he painted, he envisioned a mural for what would become known as Ground Zero. For months in 2002, he tried contacting everyone from the mayor pf New York to nearby landlords because he wanted to see if he could display the mural on the one year anniversary of the attacks.

He wasn’t looking for publicity from this; it was done as an anonymous artist.

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In August, he received permission from a nearby building owner to display the mural but still didn’t have permits, so he went to Ground Zero with a small-scale model in hand and approached the site boss of the Sheet Metal Workers union.

At first, the boss brushed him off. But when Yakov showed the piece he wanted to display, the man changed his mind. Yakov asked how much money it would take to get it hung and what permits he needed.

The union boss replied, “‘You don’t have enough money, and you don’t have the permits, but I’ll do it,’” Yakov recalled, pausing to take a deep breath; his voice quivered as he continued the story.

Yakov asked the man why he would do that.

“‘So I can bring my son and tell him I helped put this up,’” Yakov said, his eyes full of tears as he recalled the answer.

Sixty New York Sheet Metal Workers worked for free to hang the 200-feet-tall, 135-feet-wide piece of art.

On Sept. 11, 2002, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather used it as the backdrop for their news coverage.

It was titled “America’s Heart” and included the message: “The human spirit is not measured by the size of the act, but by the size of the heart.”

Few knew at that moment that the artist whose work touched them was in the heart of the Ozarks making people laugh.

Want to see Yakov?

Want to see Yakov?

Yakov Smirnoff performs live at 2 p.m.Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in July and most of August. Beginning Sept. 12, he performs every day except Mondays through most the year (excluding Thanksgiving week). His last show is Dec. 8. For a schedule or for tickets, go online: www.yakov.com